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Meat Cakes

A fried patty made from ground meat, breadcrumbs, egg, milk, butter, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Meat Cakes

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Meat Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, bread crumbs, allspice, and salt.

  2. Add the chopped meat and onion, stirring well to combine.

  3. Stir in the milk and melted butter until fully incorporated.

Cook

  1. Shape the mixture into round cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the cakes body and a tender texture.
Chopped meat
Forms the main body of the cakes and provides savory flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and cook unevenly before browning. A properly hot pan sears the surface quickly, forming a crust that holds the cake together.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, butter, onion, milk, egg, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, butter, onion, milk, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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